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Anne Zieger is a healthcare journalist who has written about the industry for 30 years. Her work has appeared in all of the leading healthcare industry publications, and she's served as editor in chief of several healthcare B2B sites.

While California providers are stepping up their use of EMRs, they’re still behind on some other measures of health IT adoption, according to a new report by the California HealthCare Foundation.

First, the positives. California physicians who use EMRs grew from 37 percent in 2008 to 59 percent in 2013. The report also concluded that 50 percent of California hospitals used EMRs in 2012, compared with 13 percent in 2007, and that 65 percent of community health centers used EMRs in 2011, compared with 3 percent in 2005.

All that being said, California providers are behind when it comes to Meaningful Use. While 58 percent of them said in 2012 that they planned to participate in Meaningful Use, only 30 percent of California providers with EMRs had a system that met all of the program’s 12 objectives, notes iHealthBeat.

What’s more, California hospitals’ use of clinical support systems fell from 77 percent in 2010 to 71 percent in 2012, a pretty low number given that the national average of 97 percent use of such tools. Also, the state ranks 49th in the country for e-prescribing rates.

The researchers also note that providers seem less interested in health IT than consumers. The 57 percent of state residents who had access to their EMRs used them to view their health records, e-mail physicians and schedule care appointments, iHealthBeat reported.

All told, the report comes as something of a surprise, given that over time, California has traditionally been at the leading edge of many healthcare industry trends. And it suggests that many California providers are missing out on increasingly well-documented opportunities to improve productivity. So let’s hope that traditionally cutting-edge providers take the nudge provided by this report seriously.

Katie Clark is originally from Colorado and currently lives in Utah with her husband and son. She writes primarily for Smart Phone Health Care, but contributes to several Health Care Scene blogs, including EMR Thoughts, EMR and EHR, and EMR and HIPAA. She enjoys learning about Health IT and mHealth, and finding ways to improve her own health along the way.

A full-patient visit can be conducted in a kiosk, thanks to Healthspot. This kiosk, which is being featured at the CES and Digital Health Summit, provides medical tools and an online connection to an actual doctor. There are many possibilities with this, such as being used in an emergency room or pharmacy. While there are still some issues that need to be adjusted and worked out, this won’t be the last we hear from Healthspot.

While only 4 percent of the healthcare community used cloud technology in 2011, that number is expected to grow in the coming years. What once was something people feared because of security concerns, cloud technology might become more mainstream with the increased expansion of mobile health apps. It may not “explode” in 2013, but it is sure to grow.

Perhaps one of the biggest trends in healthcare right now is hospital consolidation. This happens when hospitals join together to buy practices. This can be a good thing, as it can result in savings and getting goods for lower prices. However, there are also many issues associated with it, such as if a doctor is bought out by a hospital that uses an EHR that the doctor dislikes. There are many unanswered questions about hospital consolidation, but it is definitely on the rise.

Clinicians are often the targets of discussions concerned EMR use. However, they can also use it to analyze the performance of providers. There are several variables that can be used and measured with an EMR to do this, and Melissa Outlaw from SEERHealth discusses those. Many of them are highlighted in this blog post.

President and founder of the California Healthcare Foundation is leaving the company this year. Mark D. Smith, who has been an advocate for health IT over the years, has been very influential in his career. He will continue working at the University of California. This post highlights many of his accomplishments and displays how far his influence has spanned over the years.

A study conducted by Royal Philips Electronics revealed some interesting facts. Among the results, the study found that about one-quarter of Americans trust health apps just as much as their doctor. mHealth and mobile apps are getting pretty good, but should they be trusted as much as (or in some cases, more than) a regular physician?

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